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Homeschooling hits record numbers

(reason.com)
193 points bilsbie | 3 comments | 21 Nov 25 00:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.912s | source
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kylehotchkiss ◴[21 Nov 25 19:26 UTC] No.46007963[source]▶
I can't say my public school experience was great, I was bullied and didn't really click with the popular kids, but being around a cross section of actual American kids in my age group (my school district mixed middle class with lower class neighborhoods) helped me shape my worldview and learn to deal with people who didn't look or talk like me. I frequently saw fights, so I learned that you just stay away and watch your mouth around specific people. I learned that the BS American value of "popularity" doesn't translate into successful futures.

I worry this move to homeschooling and micromanaging children's social lives just creates bubbles and makes children incapable of interacting with those outside of them.

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ecshafer ◴[21 Nov 25 20:14 UTC] No.46008461[source]▶
My kids are not school age yet, and I am not sure on if I will home school or not. But I do think its possible to get good socialization exposure while homeschooling. There is the neighborhood kids, you have sports and clubs kids can join, religious groups.

Plus not all homeschooling is just a student staying at home all day. Some people "homeschooling" I know are groups of parents getting together to educate their children together in small groups of ~5 kids to share the responsibility, and hiring a tutor to fill in the gaps. Monday they go John's house, his mom has a philosophy degree and teaches them. tuesday they go to Janes house, her dad is a Mathematician and teaches them. etc.

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1. sejje ◴[21 Nov 25 20:55 UTC] No.46008885[source]▶
I used to work at a YMCA, and the local homeschool group asked us to do a PE class, which I taught.

I had the kids doing swimming, rock climbing, and all kinds of traditional PE games.

I worked with "normal" kids most of the time, and I will say the homeschool kids stuck out. They're more awkward around kids their age, but far less awkward around adults. They know how to speak and act, in large part. And they were disproportionately ahead of their peers academically--though I think that's probably a selection bias for the parents seeking out homeschool PE classes.

This was in the early 2000s, before Facebook. I'm sure the avenues to connect have only grown with social media.

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2. JoshTriplett ◴[21 Nov 25 22:58 UTC] No.46010062[source]▶
> They're more awkward around kids their age, but far less awkward around adults. They know how to speak and act, in large part.

This is another argument that "by age" is not the best way to find one's academic or social peers.

Some people in 2nd grade should be in high school. Some people in high school should be in 2nd grade. (And, academically, sometimes that's different by subject; some people need to be in 2nd grade math and high-school reading.)

I was a TA/lab-assistant at the community college I was attending. I spent a lot of time talking to and helping out people, universally older than me, who had gotten out of high school and needed to figure out where in a multi-year curriculum of remedial math they should start.

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3. only-one1701 ◴[22 Nov 25 02:13 UTC] No.46011431[source]▶
This is one of the most insane comments I’ve ever read on a hackernews story. Age is very much important when finding one’s social peers as a child.